Getting down and dirty! Tourists dive into mud pools and are locked up in a mud PRISON at bizarre festival in South Korea (but there are health benefits apparently)

Fun-loving tourists wrestle with each other as the Boryeong Mud Festival kicks off in South Korea.

While getting covered in dirt might not be your idea of a holiday, the two-week event, which is held in Boryeong, a town about 200km south of Seoul now attracts around two to three million tourists from around the world every year.

Initially created in 1998 as a marketing tool for the Boryeong mud cosmetics, the bash sees visitors taking part in various mud attractions at the seafront area in the coastal city of Daecheon.

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Weird but wonderful: Two tourists grapple with each other in a mud pool

Making a splash: One guest gets totally immersed as he wrestles with a fellow festival-goer

These include a mud pool used for wrestling, mud slides, mud skiing competitions and even a mud PRISON.

Coloured mud is also produced for body painting.

Entertainment in the form of live music, massages and a firework display are also offered.